Samuel Jaudon

Jaudon was born on May 14, 1796, and was baptized by the Rev. Ashbel Green at Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia on July 24, 1796. He was the eldest son of Daniel Jaudon and Anna ({{nee}} McNeal) Jaudon.{{cite web |title=Samuel Jaudon (1796-1874) |url=http://www.nyhistory.org/exhibit/samuel-jaudon-1796-1874 |accessdate=November 26, 2013 |work=Museum Collections: Paintings |publisher=New-York Historical Society}}

He graduated from Princeton University in 1813.{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3nzOAAAAMAAJ&q=samuel+jaudon+1874 |title=General Catalogue |date=1875 |language=en}}

Jaudon was hired as the cashier of the New Orleans branch for the Bank of the United States, the country's national bank. In 1832, Jaudon became the national cashier during the Bank War between Bank president Nicholas Biddle and U.S. president Andrew Jackson. During these years, the Bank was "plagued with allegations of poor management and fraud" including improper investments made by Jaudon and others, and election fraud in the form of preferential loans to political allies.{{cite web |date=December 2005 |title=McA MSS 012 - Bank of the United States Records (1790-1842) |url=http://www.librarycompany.org/mcallister/pdf/bankus.pdf |accessdate=November 26, 2013 |publisher=Library Company of Pennsylvania}} As a result of the Bank War, the Bank lost its national charter, but it remained in business with a state charter in Pennsylvania. In May 1836, Jaudon secured a loan of £1,000,000 through Barings Bank and a second loan of 12,500,000 F in Paris.{{cite web |author=Wallis, John Joseph |date=April 2001 |title=What Caused the Crisis of 1839? |url=http://econweb.umd.edu/~wallis/MyPapers/WhatCaused1839_NBER.pdf |accessdate=November 26, 2013 |work=NBER Working Paper Series on Historical Factors in Long Run Growth |publisher=National Bureau of Economic Research |pages=57}} He left his position in 1837, but continued working as an agent for loan negotiations.

In 1835, Jaudon sold the Bainbridge estate bonds and invested the money in the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company. Mary T. Bainbridge, Jaudon's sister-in-law who was a daughter of Commodore William Bainbridge (who had bequeathed Pennsylvania state bonds to his daughters upon his death in 1833).

In 1837-1838, Jaudon served as a director of the Wilmington and Susquehanna Railroad, one of the four companies that created the first rail link from Philadelphia to Baltimore. (The main line survives today as part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.) When the W&S merged into the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, Jaudon stayed on as a director. His service as a railroad executive is noted on the 1839 Newkirk Viaduct Monument in Philadelphia.{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=William Bender |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qj9N-eWi71YC&q=monument&pg=PA296 |title=History of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company with Plan of Organization, Portraits of Officials and Biographical Sketches |publisher=Henry T. Coates & Company |year=1895 |volume=1 |location=Philadelphia |pages=296–299 |access-date=November 25, 2012}}

Jaudon resigned from the railroad's board in January 1838,{{cite web |date=June 2004 |title=1838 (June 2015 Edition) |url=http://www.prrths.com/newprr_files/Hagley/PRR1838.pdf |accessdate=November 30, 2023 |work=PRR Chronology |publisher=The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society |pages=2}} and traveled to London to try to sell various U.S. securities on behalf of the now-private Bank of the United States.{{cite journal | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YF1NAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Samuel+Jaudon%22+railroad&pg=PA495 | title=Marshall Monument | journal=American Railroad Journal |date=January–July 1835 | volume=4, Part 1}} Among his endeavors, he sought in March to secure a $400,000 loan for the PW&B-connected Harrisburg, Portsmouth, Mountjoy and Lancaster Railroad. In May, he told railroad officials that the bond market was glutted, but they pressed him to lower his price.

In August, PW&B officials authorized him and William Strickland to negotiate a loan for their railroad. He ultimately succeeded in 1840 in obtaining a loan of $113,000 by using United States Bank bonds as collateral.{{cite web |date=June 2015 |title=1840 (June 2015 Edition) |url=http://www.prrths.com/newprr_files/Hagley/PRR1840.pdf |accessdate=November 30, 2023 |work=PRR Chronology |publisher=The Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society |pages=15}}{{Better source needed|reason=The current source is insufficiently reliable (WP:NOTRS).|date=July 2023}}

Continuing his work for the Bank of the United States, Jaudon was noted as a skilled "financial diplomat" who managed to keep European capital flowing to the Bank amid the Panic of 1837, made efforts to abet U.S. cotton speculation and dubious bond sales, but could not ultimately keep the Bank afloat. It suspended payments in late 1839, and closed in 1841.

On December 10, 1841, Jaudon, along with Biddle and John Andrews, were indicted by a grand jury on charges of defrauding the Bank's stockholders of $400,000 in 1836 and trying to cover it up through fraudulent recordkeeping in 1841.{{cite journal |author=Gouge, William M. |date=December 1841 |title=The United States Bank |url=http://www.yamaguchy.com/library/gouge/journal13.html |journal=The Journal of Banking |volume=1 |issue=13}} Jaudon was discharged on a writ of habeas corpus, and was not arraigned after.

By 1844, Jaudon and his family lived in New York City.{{cite web | url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/69.262.3 | title=Armchair, 1843 | publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art | accessdate=November 26, 2013}}

In 1855, Jaudon was secretary of the Texas Pacific Railway Company based in New York, but which sought to build a railroad with land grants from the Mississippi River. President Polk's Secretary of the Treasury Robert J. Walker was President, and Samuel Butler King of Georgia was also involved.{{Cite book |last=Poston |first=Charles D. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11226/pg11226-images.html |title=Building a State in Apache Land |publisher=Project Gutenberg |year=2004}}{{Cite book |last=Texas & Pacific Railway |url=https://ttarchive.com/Library/Articles/Texas-Pacific_Oxteams-to-Eagles.html |title=From Ox-Teams to Eagles: A History of the Texas & Pacific Railway |publisher=Texas & Pacific Railway Public Relations Department |year=1946 |location=Dallas, Texas}} The American Civil War interrupted the project, which ultimately succeeded after Jaudon's death as the Texas and Pacific Railway under Jay Gould.

In 1865, Jaudon took out a loan from the National City Bank of New York to finance coal speculation, and gave as collateral 47 shares of his sister-in-law's stock without her knowledge, and later the remaining 70 shares. In December 1867, when the loan came due, he sold Mary's stock to cover his own debt. Mary sued Jaudon, who sued his bank, who countersued in a case that was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. The Jaudons lost the money.{{cite web | url=https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/US/82/82.US.165.html | title=Duncan v. Jaudon, December Term 1872 | publisher=Resource.org | accessdate=November 26, 2013}}

On August 4, 1823, Jaudon married Marguerite Peyton Alricks (1799-1880). Together, they were the parents of six children, including:

• Annie Peyton Jaudon (1824–1894), who married Philip Livingston in 1857.{{cite web |title=Van Rensselaer Family Papers: Manuscripts and Special Collections: NYS Library |url=https://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/sc23282.htm |website=www.nysl.nysed.gov |publisher=New York State Library |access-date=8 December 2023}}
• Frances Orme Jaudon (1825–1827), who died young.
• Julia Webster Jaudon (1826–1901), who married Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, a direct descendant of Lt. Gov. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, in 1846.
• Peyton Jaudon (1828–1859), who died young.
• Samuel Peyton Jaudon (1831–1891), who married Oshidzu Matsura, daughter of Hatamoto Yoro Isami Matsura, in 1831.
• Francis Duncan Jaudon (1833–1906), who married Elizabeth McDonald Strong, in 1857.
• Lawson White Jaudon (1836–1852), who died unmarried.
• Ada Mary Caroline Jaudon (1839–1904), who married Van Brugh Livingston, son of Van Brugh Livingston,{{cite news|title=DEATH LIST OF A DAY.; Van Brugh Livingston|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A0CE0DB103DE633A25756C1A9659C946597D6CF&legacy=true|access-date=11 January 2018|work=The New York Times|date=15 March 1904}} in 1874.

Jaudon died in Philadelphia on May 31, 1874, survived by his widow and three children. He was interred at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Philadelphia.{{cite book |title=An Historical Catalogue of the St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia |date=1907 |publisher=The St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia |location=Philadelphia |pages=212–213 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q9pS4mIGrjsC&pg=PA212 |access-date=29 April 2021}} She died on April 13, 1880 and was buried in the Jaudon vault with her husband.{{cite book |last1=Sellers |first1=Edwin Jaquett |title=Jaudon Family of Pennsylvania |date=1924 |publisher=Press of Allen, Lane & Scott |isbn=978-0-598-99487-5 |pages=31–32 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Jaudon_Family_of_Pennsylvania/g6HRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA31 |access-date=8 December 2023 |language=en}}

Through his daughter Julia, he was a grandfather of socialites Augustus Cortlandt Van Rensselaer{{cite news |title=Augustus Cortlandt Van Rensselaer |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1919/09/04/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html |access-date=8 December 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=September 4, 1919}} and Peyton Jaudon Van Rensselaer,{{cite news |title=P.J. VAN RENSSELAER DIES ON LINER HERE; Member of an Old American Family Stricken on Return From His Honeymoon. HAD MARRIED IN APRIL AT 69 His Wedding to Lilian W. Newlin in Radnor, Pa., Last Spring an Outstanding Social Event. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1931/08/13/archives/pj-van-rensselaer-dies-on-liner-here-member-of-an-old-american.html |access-date=8 December 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=August 13, 1931}}{{cite web |title=511 Beacon |url=https://backbayhouses.org/511-beacon/ |website=backbayhouses.org |publisher=Back Bay Houses |access-date=8 December 2023 |language=en |date=20 February 2015}} whose portrait was painted by John Singer Sargent in 1921.{{cite web |title=Peyton Jaudon Van Rensselaer |url=https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_RI990009?destination=edan-search/catalog_of_america%3Fpage%3D283%26edan_q%3D%252A%253A%252A%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Ddate%253A%25221920s%2522 |website=npg.si.edu |publisher=National Portrait Gallery |access-date=8 December 2023 |language=en}}

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Category:1796 births

Category:1874 deaths

Category:American railroad executives

Category:Burials at Mount Vernon Cemetery (Philadelphia)

Category:19th-century American businesspeople

Category:Princeton University alumni